Birds of a Feather
by Update Bug
Summary: The first three of Ego's kids that Yondu ever met were girls. Later he would wonder if that was why. If Ego didn't want girls clogging up the gene pool. One had eyes like stars, one had a scream like glass, and one lived. Or: The One Where Yondu Gets A Clue Years Earlier First in the Flock together series


Prologue

 _The first three of Ego's children that Yondu met were all girls._

 _For a time he would wonder if that was the reason. If Ego was one of those old-school bastards that didn't want daughters clogging up his oh so superior gene pool._

 _He found out about the boys later._

Xxx

They'd picked up Skkoyya on a mining planet. One of those dingy, beaten to death dives that called their workers 'labourers' when what they meant was slaves. Technically the job had called for subtlety but, well, none of the Ravagers were all too keen on slavers. They were too aware of what it felt like to have your head pressed into the mud, foot on your back, as a self-inflated braggart with a whip and ten other guys behind him beat the shit out of you.

Take the whip away, though.

Yondu had grinned the whole the whole way through whistling through his teeth. Bloodlust rising strong and sharp in his chest as his arrow zipped through the whole stinking lot of them. Nanami had cackled. Shadowing his left side as always, half a head taller than him, a blaster in each of her four hands and the blood indistinguishable from the deep red of her skin.

Skkoyya had been chained up in one of the tunnels. A tiny kid, barely worth picking your teeth with, with a pelt of bristly black fur and eyes full of stars. Yondu had paused long enough to make sure she was the right kid and then scooped her up, slinging her over his back and skedaddling out of there before backup could show.

In so much as he'd planned for having a kid on the ship, Yondu had figured he'd have very little to do with the brat. He'd sort of figured that he could fob her off on Nanami, as the only woman on board, or dump her on Kraglin, the youngest and therefore busiest crewmate.

But Skkoyya _clung_.

Everywhere Yondu went, this little slip of a thing followed him. It made him itch. He'd looked up to Stakar, been grateful to Stakar for freeing him and taking him in, but the second those shackles had come off he'd been lunging for blood. He didn't know how to be gentle. He'd never needed it.

So, he'd ignored her. Mostly. Stomped around his ship, disciplined his crew, barked orders for Nanami to hand out. Pretended there wasn't a tiny fuzz of fluff tripping after him everywhere he went. Pretended he had no idea why.

First week on the ship, Skkoyya had disappeared. Those were the good times. Not having some little ball of fluff tugging on his coattails, every time he raised his voice at his own crew. Til three nights in when he'd found her huddled up in a vent, trembling. Yondu didn't know how to be gentle. But, well, daddy was paying a heck of a lot of credits to have his little Darlin' back home safe and sound. It'd be a bugger if they didn't get paid cause the goods wouldn't stop crying.

Kid hadn't responded to him trying to coax her out either. Though perhaps "I'm the damn captain and if you don't get out here right now I'm gonna let the crew eat ya'" hadn't been the best argument. Eventually he'd given up talking, slumping on the ground next to the vent and sent his arrow flipping over itself down the hall just for something to look at. He hadn't noticed the little shadow clambering out of the vent until she'd touched his hand.

"Wha's that?"

"Huh?" He'd glanced her over but it didn't look like she was hurt any more than she'd been when they found her. "My arrow?"

The girl nodded. "It's yours? And no one takes it from you?"

Yondu snorted, "Nah. I'd like to see 'em try."

The girl stared up at him with large limpid eyes, then fumbled for something in her pouch. Holding it up for him to see.

It was a little glass marble. Half the size of a snow globe and with a small crack distorting its clear surface.

"This is mine?" The girl whispered, "No one will take it from me?"

Her voice quavered and the hand cupping the marble wobbled.

Yondu sighed, "Nah kid, no one's gonna want your trinket."

The girl made a crooning noise in the back of her throat and cuddled around her sparkly little thing. Eventually she'd drifted off. It'd made him feel – well, feelings weren't for Ravagers. But if they were, well, it made him feel a little like the first time Stakar had let him fly a M-ship unsupervised.

When they'd finally gotten to Ego, she'd pressed the marble into Yondu's hands, strangled his knees and toddled off to her Daddy. For the next month Yondu had whistled at every damn fool who even thought the word 'soft' around him.

Still, it'd been a good job. They'd gotten to let loose a bit of steam on a bunch of good for nothing bastards, been handed a heckload of credits for trundling some kid across the galaxy and they'd even helped a little kid find their long-lost Daddy. All in all it was a bit of good karma for them.

He stuck the marble in pride of place on his dashboard.

 _When Yondu found out the truth he smashed that marble into splinters._

Three months later Ego called again.

 _Should have been the first clue._

Dawna was not like Skkoyya.

She had a perfectly nice family on a perfectly nice planet and she had no intention of leaving them to consort amongst the stars with a bunch of filthy space pirates, even if her birth Daddy was at the other end, _please and thank you._

She had shrieked like broken glass when she saw them, her little brother sprinting back to the farm to fetch an adult. Nanami had scooped her up and dragged her onto the ship, screaming all the way. They'd had to lock her in the cargo hold. It was the only place on the ship far enough away to muffle the screams.

Auriruan's had loud voices.

It had taken almost a full standard day before the kid had screamed herself silent. Yondu had made the kid a plate, didn't want daddy getting huffy that they'd starved his brood. He could've ordered some poor shmuck to do it but the way missy was acting Nanami wouldn't go near her and he didn't trust his crew not to damage the cargo. Anyway, Kraglin was still up cleaning the vents.

The door had barely finished hissing open before there was a stabbing pain in his shin and a flutter of cloth as the girl tried to slip past him.

"Oy!" He grabbed the back of her flimsy dress and tugged her back into the room. "I wouldn't go 'round doin' that, kid, my crew aint in the best of moods and you're a little soft to be roamin the halls."

She glared at him and stomped over to the furthest corner of the room, crossing her arms and dropping to the floor. Yondu glanced her over. She didn't look much like her sister, was a good few years older for one thing. Plus the Auriruan's had a mostly Xandarian build – 'side from the ears, almost as big as their head.

Yondu felt a slight twinge as he looked at her. She'd been crying. Well the whole ship had heard her crying. But there were lilac streaks smeared across the back of her hands and her face where her tears had stained her orange skin. Ravagers didn't deal in kids. But its not like he was actually dealin'. It was just a simple pick up an' drop. He was just dropping 'em off with their lovin' and very rich daddy. Still. It was easier to remember that when you were dragging the kid away from a slaver rather than a white picket family complete with mum, stepdad and 2.5 kids.

He leg ached where she's got him and Yondu growled, in a fit of sudden irritation. _He wasn't dealing kids_. When she owned an entire goddamned planet, she'd be thanking him for dragging her out of that little backwater, sun worshiping, town.

He slammed the plate onto the floor, "Eat up." He commanded. "And don't start none of that screaming crap again or I'll stop keeping my crew of your back."

He ignored her glare and locked the door again. Then he checked his leg.

There was a half inch of screw sticking out of it.

Yondu scowled and yanked it out. The cargo hold was a mess. Of course she'd pick something up.

"Damn kid."

Still, despite himself Yondu was almost impressed. She was a ballsy little thing for a brat Auriruan.

A week later Yondu was standing back on Ego's planet. Dawna's goodbye was pretty different from her sister's. She huffed and pranced over to her daddy full of offended preteen pride and rich kid snobbery. He was right. She would fit right in. Daddy looked a little different this time. Last Yondu saw him he'd been a slightly bigger version of whatever Skkoyya was. This time he was definitely an Auriruan; orange skin, ridiculous ears and all. Still. Immortal whatevers could look however they pleased he guessed. Long as they paid their dues.

Dawna was already hanging of her daddy's arm like she'd known him all her life and Yondu rocked back on his heels tuning out her high-pitched complaining about "how mean they were daddy! They scared my little brother! The blue one shouted at me, daddy. He was really rude"

He rolled his eyes. If he'd been rude she'd know about it.

Still, he couldn't help his eyes scanning the golden fields as he waited for the pantomime to be over. He was tempted to whistle just to speed the whole thing up. He frowned at the fields again. Wasn't like he'd been wanting it or anything, but considering how she'd been stuck on his heels last time he'd seen her he had half expected Skkoyya to come running up to the ship the second it landed to show off all her new trinkets.

"Thank you so much for doing me this favour, I really appreciate it"

"you're payin' enough credit for it." Yondu hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his Ravager coat and swaggered back onto the ship, Nanami falling in on his left. All four of her arms were firmly crossed. As the doors had shut, Yondu had caught sight of Dawna sticking her tongue out at him.

He shook his head. Ballsy little brat.

Three months later Ego called again.

 _The brother's name was Aubade. Years later Yondu would be scouting out a potential mark in some shady marketplace and catch a glimpse of skin in the exact same shade of orange and disappear before he was seen. Sometimes he wondered if she'd screamed. Called for her little brother and mummy and stepdaddy to come save her. But even Auriruan voices weren't that loud._

Yondu was alone in the cockpit when the call came through, boots up on the dash and flipping that little marble thing in the air.

"Really? Again?" Ego didn't even have the grace to look sheepish. "How many kids do you have

"Yes, I went through a rather uncontrollable patch in my youth. It is only in recent years that I've started to long for companionship and seek out past exploits. I trust the usual fee will be enough."

Yondu narrowed his eyes, carefully untangling his feet, dropping them to the floor one by one each with an ominous thump.

"Now, see I've been doin' a lot of work for you lately. Lot of trundling back and forth across the galaxy and picking up your sprogs. Last time the boys didn't even get a good fight out of it. Repeat requests, well that might give people the wrong idea, might start getting them thinking they could hire their personal Ravager ship to keep. I reckon, I might be needing a little more incentive if I'm gonna have to keep doing your taxi service."

Ego sighed deeply on the screen. "I don't suppose you'd consider the good deed to be its own reward."

Yondu shifted in his seat so his arrow holster was in plain view and raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I didn't think so. 10% increase?"

"I was thinkin' more 20."

Ego looked pained, "Okay, there is no price too much to meet my children."

Yonu rolled his eyes at the devoted father act and rolled the marble in his hand. "Oh yeah, speakin' of, how is Skkoyya doin? Still being a clingy brat?"

Ego laughed, "Oh, you know Auriruans," He waved a dismissive hand, "She'll be out in the fields greeting the sun."

Yondu went very still. "Yeah. And that other one, wha's her name? She behavin'?"

"Mmmh?" There was a pause and Ego's benign expression flickered for a second, "Oh, she's quite well. Though I feel you are worrying about the wrong children, the ones in my reach are quite safe, it is the children still lost to me that I worry for."

"Plural?"

Ego beamed, "Well yes, I told you, I was a wild youth. I doubt this will be the last time I call on your services."

"All right then, where's the brat I'm picking up this time."

Yondu slumped backdown in his chair and stuck his feet back up on the dash as Ego sent the information. He flipped through it idly. Another girl. Maris. Solemn faced with long hair and sharp antenna. A Coitti, then. He flipped through to a different page, checking his call records. Ego had called him exactly three months after the drop off. He flipped further back. It was the same for Dawna. He dropped off a kid. 12 weeks later ego ordered in a replacement.

His datapad dinged another message from Ego. He clicked on it. Something was sitting heavy as tar in his stomach.

"What is this?" He demanded. Ego had transferred him the money, and not just the 50 % insurance either. All of it. With a 40% increase.

"Call it a measure of trust." Ego smiled benevolently, like Yondu was one of his damn kids to be taken in by a kind smile and some pretty words. "After all, you have done good work in the past. I look forward to working with you in the future."

Yeah. Like Yondu was ever bringing another goddamn kid within a hundred feet of that goddamn planet.

He nodded tersely and slapped the button to end the call.

There was something burning low and heavy in his stomach. The black monitor threw his reflection back at him like judgment and he saw the same burning in his eyes. Ravagers didn't fuckin deal in kids. They didn't – his hands had clenched without him noticing, nails digging into his palms. There was something hard digging into his fingers. He frowned, glancing down. He was still holding the marble.

Red eyes stared blankly for a second. Then he moved. It hit the wall. Glass shattered like an Auririan's scream.

His foot bumped something on the floor. The datapad. He didn't remember dropping it. Grey eyes stared up at him from the screen. He picked it up. She didn't look nothing like her sisters.

"Nanami!" Yondu stomped out of the room, datapad clutched in one hand, "Wher'd you get to?"

"Captain." Nanami peeled herself off the wall she'd been slouched against, clearly waiting for him. "We got a job?"

"We're headin' to Coitti. Gotta pick somethin' up."

All four of her eyes found the datapad he was holding, the kid still staring out at them. Nanami blinked. A lag between each eyelid that gave the motion an unsettling rippling effect.

"What?" He snapped, "You gotta a problem with that?"

"No captain."

"Good."

"An' tell the crew we're in a hurry, so make sure they pull their goddamn weight, none of this getting too pissed to turn a screw crap, if we're late I'm tossing the whole bloody lot of them out an airlock."

Nanami blinked again. "Of course, captain."

Yondu skulked back into the cockpit, he had coordinates to programme.

Glass crunched under his boots.

He tossed his datapad onto the shelf next to his chair.

A girl who didn't look anything like her sisters stared up at him.

 _In the end, it's almost a relief when Stakar shows up._

 _When Nanami steps onto the deck behind him._

 _All four arms crossed._

 _Ravagers don't deal in kids._

He picked up the girl anyway.


End file.
